Portable external hard drive

sherri72

Hi, this may be a stupid question but i am wondering if i can dl movies that are on my pc to a portable external hard drive and watch them on my tv at the cabin using a usb cord (thats connected to the hard drive and into my DVD player)???if so, can someone please suggest a reliable hard drive? I am not looking to spend a fortune.

John_Gray

The first part (copying to external hard drive), certainly;
the second (playing on TV) will depend on whether your DVD player accepts a USB-connected hard drive. Perhaps best to experiment first with someone else's hard drive before buying one for yourself?

sherri72

thank you for taking the time to reply. i can currently connect my kodak camera via usb to my dvd player and watch videos etc. wouldnt that be the same?

custardy

sherri72 wrote: »

thank you for taking the time to reply. i can currently connect my kodak camera via usb to my dvd player and watch videos etc. wouldnt that be the same?

Simply,no. You would save a lot of time simply telling us what hardware you are using.
TV model?
DVD model?
There are many options available. So dont buy the hard drive yet.

John_Gray

"Possibly"!

Why not try a sample small movie on an ordinary USB Flash Drive to prove the principle first, if you can't find someone to lend you an external drive? You would have to find out if you need to format it first as NTFS or FAT-32 to have it accepted by the DVD player.

Not sure how big are the movies you are thinking of looking at, so you'll have to work out whether 0.5 TB, 1 TB or 2 TB would be the best size.

Have a look at Amazon (say) for prices; the last 2 TB external hard drive I bought cost about £70.

sherri72

I have watched movies/series that I have transferred from pc to usb flash drive and they've worked fine. I have A LOT of movies so I definitely need 1 TB or more. Just wanting to be sure that I won't be wasting my money on something that may not work when I try to watch it at the cabin. I don't know a lot about portable hard drives....WD portable passport has been suggested.....thoughts?

custardy

custardy wrote: »

Simply,no. You would save a lot of time simply telling us what hardware you are using.
TV model?
DVD model?
There are many options available. So dont buy the hard drive yet.

sherri72 wrote: »

I have watched movies/series that I have transferred from pc to usb flash drive and they've worked fine. I have A LOT of movies so I definitely need 1 TB or more. Just wanting to be sure that I won't be wasting my money on something that may not work when I try to watch it at the cabin. I don't know a lot about portable hard drives....WD portable passport has been suggested.....thoughts?

Yup,ignore what I wrote and go for hard drive recommendations.
good plan....

sherri72

touche.....
tv is LG flat screen
dvd/bluray Sony

tberry6686

What model of LG flatscreen TV ? Does it have a usb port ? if so try using that. I have found that the only TV's with a USB port that won't accept a hard drive are in hotels (many hotels disable the USB ports).

Some TV's/DVD's will only accept certain file formats though.

sherri72

I am not sure of the model...LG is the home tv...Samsung system at the cabin (TV/DVD).
They all have USB ports. The DVD/BLURAYs are connected to the tv's so we watch via that.

tberry6686

I usually use the USB ports on my TV's as they seem to have less issues with drives.

I currently use 2 of these below and have had no issues with the drives themselves, although any of the well known names should be just as good.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Backup-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B01DEUZS5O/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1510512914&sr=8-11&keywords=portable+hdd